Vladimír Mečiar

Vladimir Meciar is married to Margarita and together they have four children. His wife is a doctor.

Vladimir Meciar was born on July 26, 1942 in Zvolen, Czechoslovakia. He had a modest childhood with his father being a tailor and his mother a housewife. He had three younger brothers.

In 1959, he graduated from Comenius University in Bratislava. As a young adult he participated in several amateur boxing matches.

In 1959, he became a clerk at the District National Committee for Ziar nad Hronom. It was at this time that he began his political career and pledged his allegiance to the Communist Party of Slovakia.

Between 1962 and 1968, he held several positions within the Slovakia Union of Youth with the Communist Party. One such position was chairman of the District Committee of the Czechoslovak Youth Union in Ziar.

In 1968 he openly proclaimed his support for Alexander Dubcek who campaigned for democratic reforms. Dubcek was ousted that year leaving Meciar very unpopular with the rest of the Communist Party.

In 1969 the Communist Party revoked his party membership, fired him from his position, and listed him as an enemy to their regime. He was forced out of politics for the time and lived under the radar for much of the next 20 years.

In 1970 he began working as a steel worker. At the same time he put himself though the School of Law of Comenius University.

In 1992, he led Slovak Republic in the negotiations with the Czech Republic. Eventually the two sides came to an agreement to create two independent states. This nonviolent division helped ease decades of discourse and it seems that the split actually gave both countries the confidence to work as partners in international development activities around the world.